Japanese - Ask questions thread

Basically if you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.

To start it off. When an animate object (iru) dies, is it considered inanimate(aru)?

>>627
Admittedly, I'm no expert (everything I've learned is self-taught), but I'll say this:

You can't think of Japanese in terms of English

Actually, maybe you can. At least in this case.

Languages have their irregular conjugations. "Janai" sounds a whole lot better than "Janaku", sorta like Sneaked and Snuck. Most Americans say Snuck, but the correct way of saying it is Sneaked. Amazingly, I had no idea this was true until about 6 months ago... so it's possible that it's just how the language has evolved.